RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1921, Page 6

RUSSIA.

DEFENCE OF KRONSTADT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, March 16. A Reval telegram states that the Kronstadt defenders have sent a wireless appeal to world's press to send correspondents to Kronstadt. The Soviet has offered to pay the Petrograd strikers in gold if they will return to work. Helsingfors, March 16. Russians abroad have promised supplies 'for Kronstadt and deposited ten million German marks in Finland, where the French Minister is seeking to facilitate the dispatch of foodstuffs to Kron-stadt.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. AN ARMISTICE REFUSED. Reval, March 16. The Republicans at Kronstadt refused Trotsky’s request for a 24 hours’ armistice.—Aus.-JN.Z. Cable Assn. LENIN INTERVIEWED. Moscow, March 15. Lenin, in an interview with British and American journalists, declared that the rising in Petrograd and the repqxied bombardment of the town were a silly fiction. Petrograd was as impregnable against a counter-revolution-ary coup d’etat as Kronstadt. The liquidation of the Kronstadt rising had dragged out because, owing to the measures taken, the Soviet wished to avoid severe losses not only among its own troops, but among the Kronstadt garrison. The Soviet . losses were insignificant. So long as Russia was surrounded by bourgeoise States such risings as that at Kronstadt were inevitable.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.